


A Kidnapping in Kousenkyo

by EvilReceptionistOfDoom



Series: Hunters [4]
Category: Seirei no Moribito | Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, BFFs, CSI: New Yogo, Conspiracy, Crime Scene Investigation, Detectives, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Home Invasion, Implied Spousal Abuse, Kidnapping, Lies, Murder, Mystery, Noblemen, Police Procedural, Prequel, Redemption, Side Story, Spies & Secret Agents, crimesolving, rice farming, the hunters as cops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:36:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9307721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilReceptionistOfDoom/pseuds/EvilReceptionistOfDoom
Summary: The Hunters must use their special expertise - as detectives, not assassins - to find a nobleman's missing son before it's too late.Precedes the anime by a year or two.





	

As summer was coming to a close, Mon received a call early one morning from a messenger saying there had been a kidnapping in Upper Ougi during the night and he must take his best men and investigate right away.  Like most of the Hunters' work, this assignment was given in his capacity as a Royal Guard.  This wasn't spying or assassination; it was being an officer of the law.    
    Truth be told, Mon quite enjoyed police work.  He didn't have to make himself forgettable or wear a disguise for this sort of thing.  He could show up as a captain in the Guard, or even, if he felt like it, as himself, Ryuu Orutoran, a name he got to use little enough.  As Ryuu, he had a reputation for solving crimes quickly, correctly, and fairly, so he had somewhat informally acquired the role of chief detective of the Guard.  He had, in fact, been told to establish himself as such by Hibi Tonan, who felt Mon's family name would lend weight to his investigations.  The other Hunters all used assumed names among the Royal Guardsmen; some people recognized the faces as belonging to Ryuu's detective team, but they knew the men by common, easily-forgettable names like Toda and Ken.  The idea was, if one of the Guards were off-duty and happened to run into a Hunter on Hunter business, he needed to either not notice or to forget it as soon as he did.  The Hunters did not have friends except among each other.  They kept aloof from the other Guards.  They kept to themselves and were thus ignored.  
    Mon went to the site of the kidnapping bringing Yun, Sun, and Jin.  Yun was most invaluable, as he had a photographic memory and would be able to memorize every detail of the crime scene.  Sun had the innate ability to put people at ease, making him an excellent interviewer.  Jin had the best analytical mind of the eight - but Mon's purpose in bringing him was dual.  Ever since the Solstice, Mon had been looking for validation for his decision to promote an eighteen-year-old to second-in-command - in particular, an eighteen-year-old who disregarded orders.  It had been an abnormally quiet summer, however.  Much of the civil unrest had died with the Minister of Roads and his coup conspirators.  The criminal element had been shaken by the executions that followed the Minister's murder, and had toned down their activities until things blew over.  In other words, there had been little opportunity for Mon to prove to himself - and to his superiors - that he had been right to do what he did.  
    But this - solving a crime to catch a kidnapper - was exactly the sort of task suited to the young man's abilities and inclinations.  There would be no interference from conscience here.  The son of a lord was missing, and if the identity and destination of the kidnapper were not discovered at once, the boy could be lost forever.  Mon knew Jin would attack the problem with fervor, and he knew from experience that when his second was focused on something, there was simply no stopping him.  
    As the four walked up to the house, a pair of servants came running out.  "Thank goodness you're here!" one of them cried.  "Please, Master Guardsman, follow me."  
    Inside, Lord Sana Hyarutan and his wife sat on cushions by the wall.  He had an arm around her; she was crying fitfully, and her face was badly bruised.  Servants stood by with bowed heads.  
    "Lord Hyarutan," said Mon, "I'm from the Royal Guard.  My men and I are here to find and rescue your son, but first we need to know every detail about what happened.  Any clue, no matter how small, could bring your son home that much quicker.  When did you first realise the boy was missing?"  
    Sana Hyarutan explained how, during the night, he had awoken to a commotion.  The boy was screaming, and Sana's wife went to check on him, thinking a nightmare had wakened him.  Instead, she found a strange man carrying the child away.  She tried to stop him, but he struck her and cast her back; she called for her husband, but by the time the man had run out to see what was afoot, the kidnapper had already vanished into the night.  
    "Did either of you see the assailant?" asked Mon.  
    Lady Hyarutan looked at her husband, who nodded very slightly, and then back at Mon.  "He- he was a big man.  Taller than you, and broad-shouldered.  But he had a dark mask on and I couldn't see any of his features.  It all happened so quickly."  
    Sana Hyarutan's eyes narrowed just slightly.  "Love... you said earlier that you thought he looked familiar, didn't you?"  
    The woman started.  "Oh!  Yes, I- I nearly forgot.  Captain Guardsman, one of our servants is unaccounted for, a tall man who works in the kitchen.  The man I saw could have been him.  He looked a little bit familiar."  
    Sana Hyarutan added, "I never trusted that man.  I don't know why we didn't dismiss him years ago."  
    Mon nodded once.  "Lord Hyarutan, I would like to interview the rest of the household and take statements from your wife and yourself.  We will also need to search the house and the surrounding grounds for any clues.  Do we have your permission to proceed with our investigation?"  
    "Yes, of course," said Sana.  "Do whatever you need to.  We just want our son back."  
    Mon bowed slightly and went to the other three hunters to delegate tasks.  Yun would take down the statements, since he could write the fastest, and then look over the entire house and yard, including the servants' quarters, and memorize them.  Sun was to speak to the servants and then go outside to see if there were any witnesses to or signs of the kidnapper's escape.  Mon would look for clues inside, starting with the boy's bedroom.  To Jin he gave no specific task - the younger man was to follow the others around and 'observe'.  
    "Is there something specific you want me to look for, sir?" he asked, frowning.  
    "Look for answers.  Let's go."  
    With that, the men split up.  Jin wandered around the house, looking for anything that seemed off.  He searched for signs of a scuffle, for dirt that an assailant might have tracked in (because what kind of kidnapper would remove their shoes?), for footprints in the foliage beside the main walk.  Nothing.  It was almost as if the house had been cleaned - but no parent would risk obliterating the clues that might recover their stolen child.  It all seemed puzzling and suspicious.    
    Sun was outside, also looking for any signs of a trespasser.  "Any luck?" Jin asked, meandering over to join him.  
    "No.  I'm going to walk up the road a ways and see if the field hands saw anything."  
    "In the middle of the night?"  
    Sun shrugged.  "One of the servants said something about her husband having been called out to the fields the night before last."  
    "Lord Hyarutan has his men working the fields at night?"  Jin looked perplexed.  
    "Who knows.  He might have been planning something.  Worth a look."  
    The younger nodded.  "I'll come with you.  I can't find anything inside."  
    They walked down the road in silence, passing rice paddies lush deep-green over shining water.  "The harvest should be good this year," Sun observed, indicating the drooping florets on the clustered plants.  Each of the Hunters had a civilian specialization, for the sake of undercover investigation; Sun had learned all about agriculture, so as to be able to blend easily with farmers and fieldhands, and he took every opportunity to demonstrate that knowledge, simply because he found plants interesting.  "See how heavy the panicles are?  And nearly every tiller's productive - I can only see one or two ineffective ones."  
    Jin cast him a dubious glance.  "Are you making up words to see if I catch it or not?"  
    "No!" Sun laughed.  "A tiller's just a stem, and the panicle is the cluster of seeds.  Never mind, you only understand smith talk - steel types and forging methods.  But farming's much more useful, you know."  
    "Whatever you say."  
    They spotted a group of men working near a lumpy hill that protruded from the paddies like an enormous old tree-trunk, a hunk of rock the size of the Third Palace, covered in ferns and gnarled saplings.  This landmark was called Little Round Knob Hill, and it marked the edge of the Hyarutan family's land.  The two Hunters left the road and walked along a ridge between paddies to where the men were picking worms off the plants.  They passed a field that had recently been harvested, and Sun pointed to the plants stacked on the paddy's edge.  "Harvested way too early," he remarked.  "It's still green - won't be ripe for another week or two."  
    "Why would they harvest a field early?"  
    Sun put his hands up in a gesture of bafflement.  "If it were insects or disease, they'd have burned the harvested plants, not set them to dry like that.  I'd guess someone made a mistake."  
    The pair reached the workers, and Sun crouched down so he was at their level.  "Ohayo!  What's the problem?  Armyworms?"  
    "Yeah," grumbled one of the workmen, straightening.  He saw Sun's uniform and raised an eyebrow.  "You know about growing rice?"  
    "Of course!  My parents are farmers."  
    "Ah, I see!"  The man's attitude immediately grew warm.  He and Sun chatted about rice pests for a few seconds; then Sun asked, offhand, "What about that field at the foot of the hill?  Why'd you harvest it so early?"  
    The man shrugged.  "I don't know.  I didn't see it harvested.  Yesterday the plants were still there."  
    "Huh."  Sun went on to ask about Lord Hyarutan and his son, and about the night before.  He engaged the other men, as well.  Jin listened but did not contribute; he tended to have the opposite effect from Sun when it came to setting people at ease.  After the interviews were complete, Sun thanked the men and motioned Jin to head back.  
    "What do you think?" the younger Hunter asked as they walked towards the manor house.  "They seemed rather cagey about the harvested field."  
    "That was a bit odd," Sun agreed.  "And they seemed cagey about Hyarutan, too."  
    "There's something off about this whole thing."  
    "Yes.  Hyarutan has a reputation.  I think the servants are scared of him."  
    They met up with Mon and Yun at the manor house, where Yun was still walking around taking a mental snapshot of the place.  When he had finished, the four went back to the barracks, where the other Hunters joined them, and all eight gathered in the main room of the building to discuss the case.  Mon repeated Sana Hyarutan's account of the incident for those who hadn't heard it, and described the peculiar lack of clues about the house and garden.  He asked Yun and Jin if they had seen anything, and they confirmed they hadn't, either.  "I don't believe the place was cleaned, however," Yun said, closing his eyes and visualizing the scene he'd memorized.  "I believe the absence of evidence is real.  If the place had been cleaned and the clues obliterated in that way, there would not have been cobwebs in the corners or dust on the steps, and the boy's bed would have been made and his toys put away.  But the boy's bedchamber was in mild disarray, the floors want polishing, the garden needs to be weeded.  Also, the servant Lord Hyarutan thinks is responsible for the kidnapping either didn't sleep in his room last night, or his bed has been made since, but his belongings were all still in the room.  If he were planning a journey, he'd probably have taken a few things."  
    When Yun had given his report, Mon turned to Sun.  "Well, Sun, what did you turn up?"  
    "I spoke with all the servants and several of the field hands," said Sun.  "There was a sense of nervousness about them, not only toward me but also toward Lord Hyarutan.  Several of them also mentioned the man on the kitchen staff who's gone missing, and most were eager to suggest that the missing servant kidnapped the boy."  He repeated what the servants had said, speaking rapidly - not exactly word-for-word but close.  There was a small scrap of paper in his hands, which he absently folded while he spoke; his fingers moved as if independent of his body.  It was mesmerizing to watch.  The scrap of paper transformed into a tiny origami crow, which Sun carefully set aside without pausing in his recitation.  Yun took everything down with ink and a brush.  
    "Jin," said Mon when Sun had finished, "what do you think of this?"  
    The younger hunter straightened abruptly; he had been so transfixed on his colleague's papercraft that he had lost focus on the situation at hand.  But he did not hesitate to respond.  "Sir, I think Sana Hyarutan is lying."  
    "And?"  
    "And..."  He drew himself up a little taller.  "I conclude that there was no kidnapping, sir.  Lord Hyarutan is known for his rages.  I believe he killed the child and means to blame it on the missing servant."  
    "And the servant?"  
    "I believe the servant has been killed as well, sir."  
    Mon gave a small nod.  He did not smile, but Jin could tell he was satisfied, and the young man was pleased and relieved that his deductions had been so received.  "I concur," said Mon.  "Rai, Zen, Taga, find Lord Hyarutan and arrest him.  He will certainly be armed and probably will not be alone.  Yun, you will come with me to arrest Lady Hyarutan and watch the house.  Sun, Jin, Hyoku, you must find the bodies or we will not be able to prove a murder has been committed.  Go at once - Lord Hyarutan may have hired someone to cover up the evidence of his crime."  
    Everyone responded, "Yes, sir!" and went out.  
    "He's still testing you," Hyoku observed as the three younger Hunters jogged towards the Hyarutan manor; Yun and Mon had taken horses and ridden ahead.  Sun nodded in agreement.  
    "He probably doesn't trust me, after what happened at the Solstice."  
    "I concur," said Sun in deadpan imitation of their leader.  "Where do you think we'll find the bodies?"  
    "In the rice paddies by Little Round Knob Hill."  
    "The field he just harvested."  
    "Yes."  
    Sun nodded knowingly  "My thoughts as well."  
    "But," Jin added as they turned up the road towards the hills, "we won't find the boy there, just the servant.  Hyarutan killed him in a fit of passion; he's too genuinely upset to bury his son in a rice field like a dead dog.  The boy will be somewhere on the manor grounds."  
    Hyoku glanced over at him, a little impressed.  "You know where?"  
    "No, but it shouldn't be hard to find."  
    As the men approached the foot of Little Round Knob Hill, they slowed from the fast loping stride they'd been keeping.  The sun was low, casting a golden filter over the scene.  There were men in the harvested field, and though apparently working, they worked listlessly, glancing up more often than down.  There was unquestionably something amiss here.  "Sun," said Jin quietly, and the other nodded and darted into the woods of the Hill's rocky toe.  Jin and Hyoku then went at a normal pace up the farm path to where the men were working.  
    "Hey," called Jin as soon as the men saw them.  "Stop working a moment.  We need to talk to you."  
    The men shifted about uneasily.  They held hoes and shovels, despite it was long past planting season and this field had already been harvested.  Neither were they replanting, for there were no seedlings about.  
    "What- what're you doing here?" one of the men blurted.  
    "We've come from Court," Jin said evenly.  "We're following reports of tax fraud.  This field was harvested much too early, and His Majesty received no tax from its owner.  Do you know anything about that?"  
    The men seemed taken off guard.  It was an absurd story, but just plausible enough to confuse them.  It was as the Hunter intended.  The foreman grumbled, "This field had blight.  It was a total loss."  
    "Then why hasn't it been burnt?" said Hyoku, taking up the fib enthusiastically.  Jin could tell the other Hunter thought the cover story hilarious, but Hyoku's voice was harsh.  "You put the Empire's entire food supply in danger with your carelessness."  
    The foreman bristled.  "Don't tell me how to farm, Chief, and I won't tell you how to be a guard."  
    "I'm afraid you'll have to come back with us for questioning," said Jin.  "All of you."  
    "Come peacefully," Hyoku added.  When the men responded with uproar, he retorted fiercely, "His Majesty's taxes are a serious matter."  His eyes betrayed his amusement at the scenario, however, and this must have unconsciously touched off the laborers, because one of them shouted, "They know!" and bolted.  The others would have followed, but the man suddenly shrieked and fell, and lay thrashing and moaning in the mud.  Sun had shot him in the leg.  
    "What're you men busy hiding?" Jin asked, his voice casual but his hand on his sword hilt.  
    "Torgal's blood," swore one of them.  "Who are you people?  What do you want with us?"  
    "We're just guardsmen investigating a crime," said Hyoku calmly, his irreverence gone and replaced with a dangerous cool.  "Now, you men help us, and you'll be free to go once this matter's concluded.  You don't help us, and you'll be accessories to murder, and treated accordingly."  
    The men murmured and looked about anxiously.  Sun, at the edge of the forest, readied another arrow.  
    "Lord Hyarutan made us bury him!" one of the workers suddenly yelled, almost falling forward.  "It's not our fault!"  
    Jin and Hyoku exchanged a quick congratulatory glance.  "Where is the body?" Jin asked.  He hopped down from the path, and the man led him hastily to the shallowest part of the field.  The rest of the laborers milled about nervously.  Hyoku's hands moved to his swords.  
    "I won't go to prison!" one of the men yelled abruptly.  He threw himself at Jin, but made it only a single step before he fell with a howl, an arrow in his shoulder.  The Hunter looked at him dispassionately, then let his gaze sweep the rest of the men.  "Does anyone else feel like interfering with the law?"  
    No one did.  
  
They found the dead boy buried in the Hyarutan manor gardens, as Jin had predicted, under a patch of paving stones where, Yun noticed, no algae had colonized the grout.  
    When Lady Hyarutan saw the bloated splotch-faced body of her son, she broke down and told them everything.  The child and his father had quarrelled.  Sana Hyarutan had flown into one of his rages and struck the boy.  The boy fell but Sana continued to beat him.  His wife tried to pull him off; he struck her, too, but then he saw his son was no longer moving.  He yelled at the boy to get up.  He shook him.  He realised what he had done and fell into a panic.  One of the servants, walking in unsuspecting, saw the dead boy, and Lord Hyarutan grabbed him and broke his neck.  He told his wife what to say and coached her til she had it right.  At night he took some men and buried the servant in the rice field, but they had to harvest the whole field the next day because the rice over where they put the body had wilted and died.  They laid the boy in the yard, paved over his grave, and only then called in the police to report their son's kidnapping.  Sana had known the Royal Guard would soon discover there was no kidnapper, and so he had taken his best retainers and fled.  He had expected at least a few days' lead, however, and Lady Hyarutan was still crying when Taga arrived to report Sana had been taken into custody, along with two of the men with him.  His third companion had, regrettably, been killed.  
    "You did well today," Mon told Jin as the two walked home together.  It was long past midnight by then.  The others had all left some time ago, but Mon stayed behind to document the crime scene and had his second stay back to help.  "It seems detective work suits you."  
    That was all he said, but the younger man knew what Mon meant by it.  His faith in Jin had begun to be restored.


End file.
